/m/scott_boras

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The author owes me a new monitor.
And a new keyboard.
And a carpet cleaning.
And probably new shoes. And socks.
And [looks around] some new wallpaper. (Do they even make wallpaper anymore? Well, mine suddenly needs replacing, so the author better figure it out.)

To take this suggestion seriously, I'd have to say that Miller actively changed the business of the major leagues, with significant impact on competition and careers; Boras has just conducted business as usual in a successful way, without nearly as much influence on how and what we watch. I could be wrong, but that's my first impression. From #s 1-8 it seems like I'm not fixing to hear much counterargument :)

It's an interesting point, but there are a bunch of high powered agents who have gotten their clients insane contracts. Boras is the best at what he does, but I don't think his career is in the same ballpark as Miller's from a historical perspective.

From #s 1-8 it seems like I'm not fixing to hear much counterargument :)

I was being serious insofar as not being particularly against it. Agents are part of baseball, so if Boras is the greatest agent ever, then he is a plausible HOF candidate.

I do think that there are non-players other than managers/GMs/owners/umps who should be considered more than they have been. Pitching coaches, writers, statistical reference website makers ;-)... and sure, perhaps agents. And I think it's clear that non-players aren't necessarily required to have changed the way the game is played; they can just be really good at their job.

It's hard, though, for me to worry too much about any of those guys when Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Tim Raines aren't getting elected.

Beach ball manufacturers
Digital scoreboard operators
The person who first played duh-duh-DUH-duh on an organ
the top 15 peanut vendors at each ballpark, including now destroyed ballparks
Every member of the Busch family, including people divorced from Buschs

In 2018, the HOF will follow Time magazine and put a display up that says, "This year's HOF inductee" above a giant mirror

I think going forward umps should be easy to induct. Given the tools at our disposal we should be able to identify with some reasonable amount of objectivity who the good umps are and who the bad umps are. Maybe it already exists somewhere but information like "Dan Iassogna calls balls and strikes correctly on 95.8% of pitches, 4th in the majors" should exist.

Would it have been unreasonable to give Edith Head a lifetime achievement Oscar?

Interesting analogy, though of course with the Oscars, the annual statuettes are more important than the lifetime awards, and Head had a closetful of them.

I'd be selective about non-players/non-managers; they'd have to have changed the game on the field via their influence, and few have done that. Chadwick. Landis. Rickey. Curt Flood, for that matter. (Both Rickey and Flood played, and Rickey was a field manager, but they wouldn't get in for those achievements.)

Though to whoever suggested a few threads back that the introducer of microbrews in ballparks should get a plaque, I am way down with that. We are still waiting for such a savior to come to Cowboys Stadium and rescue thirsty football fans.

In the spirit of the late Marvin Miller, I have to note that Henry Chadwick called the first attempts by players to unionize as the formation of secret terrorist organization (per Lowenfish "Imperfect Diamond").

Perhaps someone like Boras should therefore be inducted as countweight to the ranting of Chadwick?

Reportedly Eddie Layton. Although before Layton's baseball debut, Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble had already gone on shopping sprees while screaming "CHAARRRRRRGE IT!" after the duh-duh-duh-DUH-duh-DUH bugle call. The continuum of important culture is deeply complicated.

With contracts being more or less public, it should be possible to construct models to rank the effectiveness of agents. Don't see how Boras could be advocated without support from something like that.